Overview

This book takes the reader for a short journey over the structures of matter showing that their main properties can be obtained even at a quantitative level with a minimum background knowledge. The latter, besides some high school physics and mathematics, consists of the three cornerstones of science presented in chapters 1 to 3, namely the atomic idea, the wave-particle duality, and the minimization of energy as the condition for equilibrium. Dimensional analysis employing the universal constants and combined with ""a little imagination and thinking"", to quote Feynman, allows an amazing short-cut derivation of several quantitative results concerning the structures of matter. This book is expected to be of interest to physics, engineering, and other science students and to researchers in physics, material science, chemistry, and engineering who may find stimulating the alternative derivation of several real world results, which sometimes seem to pop out the magician's hat.

Full Product Details

9783642200885

Table of Contents

Reviews

From the reviews: This book is the first volume of a newly inaugurated collection (Springer Briefs in Physics) and is the outcome of several lectures delivered along the years by the author to a broad audience. It aims to cover some of the main chapters of modern physics by combining short expositions of the basic ideas and worked examples that apparently require a minimum background knowledge. (Serban Misicu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1243, 2012)

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available